A day in the (pandemic) life!

Even as this pandemic way of life has 'normalized' a bit over the last 18 months, its worth documenting the slight adjustments we've made for our general safety. Here's how I spent October 7th, 2021. Stay the smart course, friends...I think an end of 'new-normal' is close.

Here's a semi-regular pandemic 'office' of mine where I spent about 4 hours working yesterday. This is in a Bellevue office building lobby with a Starbucks kiosk store and obviously a wi/fi connection. It's convenient for my pandemic purposes because very few of the offices in this building are operating at normal capacity yet and therefore the lobby is usually quite empty and accessible too. Its also about 1000 feet from my front door. Before the pandemic, I used my home office to service 7 retainer clients...all of whom stopped developing over a year ago...and therefore stopped cooperating with ME at the same time. Today I have 2 new, strong client relationships (one that pays very well and another, which offers exceptionally interesting and rewarding work) and I feel grateful today that more regrowth seems finally possible. (Note, BTW that I am normally masked and distanced in an atmosphere like this...I guess the tea cup on the table explains my momentary lack of mask here.)

Here's a shot from yesterday's screen, which shows an example of the work my firm provides. I and my industry refer to my kind of work as, 'O.E.M.' design and development. (OEM=Original Equipment Manufacture.) Basically, I design new product concepts to established brands, which I then develop for them under their own label. My services are pretty unique, in that designers usually design, then hand-off to a development specialist. I do both and after having done it this way for 20+ years, and I cannot understand why any brand would consider operating otherwise. The piece shown here is an initial stage product concept, based upon a request in a product brief I received from the client. They'll receive 10 basic concept drawings like this one to choose from...Then we'll concentrate upon defining styling, function, materials, pattern and the appointment of a manufacturing partner. Often, I will then travel to visit that dev partner, which is almost always located somewhere in Southern China.

After 'leaving the office' on this day, I was lucky to run into the third or fourth best guy in Bellevue, Mr. Jamie Svenson during my walk home. Jamie and I actually 'work together' quite often, as he's a creative services provider too, and working daily during the pandemic in a way (and place) quite similar to mine. Jamie is an SEO master, with a long list of Bellevue clients and an easy, even, intelligent manner that must be appreciated by his clientele. Check out Jamie's page: www.buzzonlinemedia.com

Back at home around noon, we find the lovely 'Mrs. Wingate' (my wife, Christine) hard at work in her own 'pandemic office'. Christine is a marketing exec at the world's largest 'B to B' corporation, which is an Issaquah company. She's been operating almost 100% from the seat she fills here, for 18 months now. Her wonderful company has cared for it's families in a way I can never suitably thank them for, during this pandemic. Christine's been back to traveling to shoot locations and local photo studios for a couple of months now, but her employer's corporate office has still yet to reopen for regular use. (That painting behind her is the work of our magnificent daughter, Ava BTW.)

Next stop: GYM. When covid-19 started, the gyms closed of course. That was hard on me, because I really need a gym. I can't really run for fitness these days...at 62, the injuries just happen too oft. I find that the only modes I know, where I can still perform at a pretty high level are in a gym or on a bike. But just before the gyms were reopened by the state for business, MINE CLOSED PERMENANTLY. I replaced the old membership with one at this Bellevue gym...and I am so happy I did. The Iron Works Gym is such a welcome throwback. People are there to work and stay out of your way, and that seems like a rarity to me now. The owner at IWG is an old bodybuilder and contemporary of Arnold, Lou Ferrigno, Franco Columbo, Lee Haney, etc... Check it out: IRONWORKS | The Gym That's Not a Health Club (iron-works.com)

What's not to love? This was about noon:thirty, I think. There were 20-ish people working out and NO wait for any single discipline in the house. My phone app confirms that I did a medium-ish workout of: 15 minutes warmup, 11 exercises, 36 sets, 442 reps. I was there about 1 hour and 35 minutes.

It was nice to NOT wear a mask while lifting for a couple of months but they're back now, of course. It was strangely difficult to go back to masking after the viral variant became a reality. I had a lot of trouble for several workouts and I am not certain why it was so hard, the second time. Anyway...my use of a cell phone in the IWG for this photo was a first for me. (and I was a bit embarrassed to pull it out for this 10-second use.) One of the best things about this gym is that NOBODY is ever blabbering on their devise while others are trying to work!

Back home...no noticeable change in Phoebe's positioning.

Next phase....Going to the Seattle Seahawks Thursday night matchup against the LARams! Obviously, this activity is massively effected by the pandemic, as well. For this game, Christine and I are guests of our old friends, Dave and Cindy Heric...and we've decided to meet at the Northgate light rail and train together to the stadium.

The train was filled with just about 100% Seahawks fans, as evidenced by all the 'Hawks gear. (Christine, Cindy, Dave)

Go Hawks! Note that one second after this photo, a woman approached us pointing to a small, Seahawks-logo'd sign in her hands that read: "MASK-UP!" and we did so, immediately!

Dave and Cindy's seats are magnificent. Geno Smith's fantastic TD pass to DK Metcalf was literally right in front of us. I would say that more than 90% of the fans I could see were properly masked throughout the game. The Seahawks have also instituted a policy requiring proof of vaccination at the gate OR proof of a negative test, no more than 72 hours-old.

This was a terrific game to attend. Great weather, great friends...what's better than that? (Thanks to D&C Heric!)

A train back to the car...and a stop at a local Scottish restaurant (with arches) on the way home, ended my pandemic day! Cheers all. I feel like we are nearly back to normal...but for the moment, this present normal isn't really THAT bad...huh? t.